Huaraz

My bus arrived to Huaraz in the dark at 5am. I waited half an hour for the sun to come up and then walked around town to find a hostel. To avoid wasting anytime I got the walking shoes on and after a quick taxi ride out of town, started on the walk to the pre-Inca ruins of ****. This walk pasted through some nice little villages on the side of the hill and afforded fantastic views of the 20+ 6000m peaks of the Cordillera Blanca that surround town. The ruins were reasonably impressive with a 3 storey tomb and another set of ruins with a few houses. I returned to town passing through several farms. I headed for some expensive, but very nice thai food for dinner and then hit the sack to get up early the next morning to do some more exploring around the area.
The next day I packed a few sandwhiches for lunch and then caught a combi van up the mountain to Pitec, the starting point of the walk up to the Churrup Lake. The combi trip saved a big walk up the hill and they also threw in a free 40 minute wait in Huaraz. From Pitec I followed the ridge up the the base of the mountain and followed the contours around the mountain. It had been nice and sunny in town when I left off, so I had opted to leave the bulky jackets behind. This now seemed a foolish decision as it started to hail and the clouds appeared to be moving in over the mountains. I almost decided to turn back but pressed on. The next section of the walk required climbing up the climb by the side of the waterfall that led out from the lake above. As much of the water had frozen on the rocks, this was a difficult stretch, however once I reached the top the view over the Lake Churrup, Nevada Churrup and its glacier was amazing. I enjoyed my sandwhiches while perched on a rock to enjoy the view. With the snow starting to fall, it was time for me to get back into town and get a jumper on. I returned pretty quickly to Pitec, but there were no regular busses to this point, so I continued on the trail following the aquaducts to the village of ***, but the last bus had already left, so I continued on towards Huaraz. I met a local couple with a 15 day old dog that were also heading down to find a bus into town so I joined them for all the local shortcuts. The dog died along the way, but fortunately it wasn't far to **** where we caught a combi the final few kilometers into town. From the lake down I had decended about 1500m so my feet were certainly feeling it. I decided it was time to try out the cuy (guinea pig). Unfortunately there weren't too many restaurants serving it, but found a guy wheeling around a crate load of live specimans, so followed him to a local restaurant where he was doing a delivery. I ordered the cuy broaster which turned out to be remarkably similar to a peice of KFC chicken, but with less meat and more small bones. It tasted great and I could have easily eaten a few more, but called it a night.
The next day I had my overnight bus to Trujillo leaving at 8pm so decided to have a day break from the fast travel pace and all the walking. So I checked out the cuy in the local markets, did my shopping in the mercado artesanal and then read a magazine on the roof of the hotel enjoying the amazing view over the city to the montains. This was just interupted to go down to the plaza for a good pasta in the sun. In the evening we had some chifa (chinese food) and then chatted to a few people in the hostel who were all serious montain climbers planning to climb several of the surrounding peaks.